Britain is in the grip of its fifth heatwave this year and England and Wales have provisionally recorded their driest July in 190 years. Southeast England received just 1 per cent of its expected average rainfall. Some 71.3 percent of England is in drought, the UK government said Monday, after the nation experienced its driest July on record, with a fifth heatwave and scant rain forecast for the week ahead. Parks and fields that are usually green at this point in the year were parched and yellow, according to AFP photos, as river levels dwindled and farmers battling low crop yields warned of possible food shortages.
"Almost three-quarters of England is now in drought as conditions worsen following a dry start to August," the environment department said, as parts of the central Midlands and northeast England joined other areas of the country experiencing prolonged dry weather.
